This has been made for the same person as the other Maldon picture tile. Her mother's name is Dawn (hence the name of the boat) and she was a work colleague of mine before she retired and moved to Maldon.

I actually use a program designed to work with my digital cutter ( the same one I use for making stencils for etching dichroic glass) and use for other things as glass is a very new craft for me. It is Silhouette Studio and the basic version is a free download. It enables me to trace the parts of the image that I want to recreate and put in some colour to guide me too. It definitely makes the job a lot easier than it would be any other way, although I know it is also possible to do the same with layers in many other graphics programs.

oooh, now I'm really intrigued - I've been thinking about a vinyl cutter/plotter for a while now and have been researching a bit! Like you, for use with dichro etching and some sandblasting. Any recommendations?

I have the Silhouette Cameo which can cut up to 12 inch wide materials. They have recently brought out a cheaper one, the Portrait which cuts up to A4 width (approx letter size width). I love mine but it is a steep learning curve but there are a ton of tutorials on utube for the Cameo which will work for both. I did have an earlier version called a Craft Robo and these can still sometimes be picked up on Ebay for a reasonable price. They all use the free Silhouette Studio software.

I have looked at both the Cameo and the Portrait, am considering purchasing the Silhouette brand because it can do vinyl and fabric. My sis-in-law has a Cameo, but I haven't been able to get her two cents worth because she hasn't used it yet - and she's had it for well over a year, maybe closer to two! I can't wait to try out new toys as soon as I get them, so that just floors me!

I was wondering - when you are working with vinyl for glass etching, do you have to buy Silhouette branded material, or can you source elsewhere?